POLITICO 'GRADES' EUROPE'S LEADERS IN MANAGING CORONAVIRUS

 Filenews 18 October 2020

Seven months after the pandemic – while the second wave is in full swing, which we all hoped would not come, but we knew was inevitable – Europeans have become more aware of how to handle the crisis.

In contrast to the shock, terror and panic that struck the Old Continent in March, a more optimistic feeling of "wir schaffen das" (we can do it) prevails this time. For the most part, Europeans wear masks and keep their distance while doing everything they can to live a somewhat normal life.

However, the effort to manage the risk of contamination, keeping the economy away from collapse, is far from what science finds. And with the second wave plaguing Europe, the figures describe a grim reality. At the peak of the first wave there were almost 32,000 recorded cases of coronavirus per day across the EU27 and the UK. Now, it's almost three times as many.

So far, almost 200,000 people have lost their lives to coronavirus and 4.5 million people have been infected in the EU and the UK. The European economy is expected to shrink by more than 8% this year.

With case rates rising in many countries, Politico has decided it's time to take stock of how well European political leaders have done. Which policies worked and which did not? The following ranking - although it contains grim statistics on coronavirus - has not been rigorously assessed, nor is it based on criteria set by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control or John Hopkins University. Instead, it's a mostly subjective, political look at the "Good guys, the bad guys and the... ugly".

Mi amore

Everyone loves a fairy tale with a happy ending. And everyone loves Italy. No country transforms the European way of life, at least in terms of ambitions such as Dante's country and Ferrari's. That is why no European has been left indifferent to the horror scenes that took place in Bergamo in February. Thanks to Italy, the rest of the continent understood the "depth and dimension of the crisis," said German President Frank-Walter Stier, who made his first foreign visit to Milan after the outbreak last month.

More importantly, Italy has shown the rest of Europe how to turn things around. Terrified by the dramatic death toll in the Lombardy region, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's government took action, using the... alibi won through the state of emergency in order to activate the famous rigour of the Italian administration. And that turned out to help Italy balance the curve faster than he thought.

Conte also managed to win generous European aid, playing a key role in persuading Merkel to reduce Germany's resistance to the common debt issue, while proving that even the tough chancellor can resist the irresistible... Latin charm.

North... Lights

In almost any world ranking of countries, be it quality of life, happiness or quality of education, Scandinavians are at or near the top. The coronavirus is no different (mostly). Norway, Iceland, Finland and Denmark have overcome the pandemic steadily, so far. (That these four countries are run by women may or may not be a coincidence).

The rapid imposition of restrictions by Scandinavians at the beginning of the crisis helped reduce the rate of cases, allowing governments to leave shops open and then relax most controls in the summer. This saved both lives and alleviated the economic impact. The same is generally true for neighbouring Baltic countries, which have avoided the worst of the pandemic, suffering a cumulatively fewer than 220 deaths. Across the north, effective public administration to conduct tests and the public's willingness to comply with restrictions were the keys to success.

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg's press conferences with students are just one example of the innovative political spirit of northern Europe.

Finland's Prime Minister Sana Marin won the highest praise for her attitude - despite her inexperience - under pressure. While Finland (and the rest of the region) has a number of natural advantages such as geographical isolation, strong social cohesion and a fairly small population, Marin was only 4 months in this position when the coronavirus pandemic broke out. Cases of coronavirus in Finland, a country of 5.5 million, have recently increased (Marin herself had to leave the European Council summit this week after discovering she had been exposed to the virus), but the death rate in the country from the virus (6.34 per 100,000) remains one of the lowest in Europe.

The Greece of our hearts

No country was in the ideal position for the koronvirus from Greece to "defeat" it. The country's economy continues to be overwhelmed by the shock it suffered during the debt crisis, it has one of Europe's oldest populations – so vulnerable to the most serious effects of the crown - and its citizens are renowned for their persistent refusal to follow the rules.

But it turns out that the risk of death – or the collective memory of the wounds of the past – dominated the thinking of the Greeks more than the threat of economic disaster. Under the diligent guidance of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Athens made it clear from the outset that Greeks had to take the pandemic seriously. And they complied by implementing one of Europe's strictest lockdowns, including the closure of schools and churches.

The radical steps, which began in March, kept the crown in check, but put the economy under even more pressure. In early May, the government imposed some restrictions, hoping to save at least part of the tourist season, a key source of revenue for the entire Greek economy. But even with open borders, tourists still didn't come. that is why the IMF predicts that the Greek economy will shrink by 9.5% this year.

However, the government managed to keep the virus under control. Although incidents have increased significantly in recent weeks, Greece still has the lowest death rate in Europe (4.49 per 100,000).

This is all the more striking given that the government has had to deal with emergencies on two other fronts: Turkey threatening the Eastern Mediterranean and the refugee crisis on.

East of the Rhine

Overall, the German-speaking countries of Europe and the countries of central and eastern Europe have managed the crisis well.

Germany is often seen as the European model for the strategy to be applied to the pandemic, but it has also made many mistakes, including a slow initial reaction and Berlin's decision to close most borders. The country's governance, which bears responsibility for health and education in Germany's 16 states, has made it even more difficult with Angela Merkel's decision to impose national policies. As a result, Germany is implementing a patchwork of rules and regulations on coronavirus that often cause more confusion than help.

Even so, Merkel's persistent urges to Germans to use a mask and keep their distance at social events (which seems perfectly natural to Germans) helped Germany avoid the fate of other major countries, where the pandemic got out of hand.

Austria is also on track. Many in Europe may blame the Alpine nation for its contribution to the spread of coronavirus throughout the region, failing to manage a major outbreak in isgle's Tyrol ski resort in February, but Isgle was a wake-up call for Chancellor Sebastian Kurtz.

His government quickly imposed tough restrictions across the country, including sealing entire cities, to bring the spread of the coronavirus under control. This strategy worked in the summer, although cases are now rising again at a daily rate more than 50% higher than the peak in March. Nevertheless, the death rate in Austria (10.9 per 100,000) is lower than that in Germany.

Scandinavian Noir

Who would believe that? By any objective measure, Sweden, the country long regarded by progressives as the gold standard of governance, threw the ball at the crown. Prime Minister Stefan Loffen essentially entrusted responsibility for the government's response to Sweden's chief epidemiologist Ander Tegnell, who opposed masks and the closure of schools, shops or restaurants. For Tegnell, lockdowns are "like using a hammer to kill a fly."

Tegnell insists he used a "herd immunity" strategy to boost immunity to the virus in the population. Regardless of the plan, it has so far led to over 100,000 cases and a mortality rate of 5.8% compared to Sudan. The rate in neighbouring Norway is just 1.7%.

Sweden remains a role model – at least among the naysayers of lockdowns. If Laughlin, a Social Democrat, makes second thoughts, he doesn't betray them. For now, he remains stuck in his motto: hålla i o hålla ut ("keep fighting").

Czech republic

One thing that the crown has taught Europe is that no country can rest on its laurels. First proof: The Czech Republic. Prime Minister Andrei Babis may be known as the "mini-Trump" of Central Europe, but the populist Czech billionaire's initial response to the pandemic didn't borrow much from Trump's policy (except for the early ban on direct flights from China on February 9th).

The Czech Republic was the first in Europe to make the use of masks compulsory, closed schools and non-essential shops. She was also the first to ease restrictions, starting at small stores on April 9. That's where the problems started.

Babis then bypassed the architect of the country's response to the crown, epidemiologist Roman Primula. The sense of national pride that dominated the country at the beginning of the summer quickly turned into hubris. Babis ignored the warning signs and worried that imposing restrictions would infuriate the business community. So he didn't do anything.

When cases daily exceeded the levels observed last spring, the health minister tried to reapply rules on mask use. But Babis vetoed new restrictions. The result: cases have increased. An increasingly desperate prime minister responded by sacking the health minister on September 21st and replacing him with Primula, the epidemiologist he had been unaware of for months.

It may be too late. Case rates in the country of 10.5 million have exploded in the last month. In recent days, the number of new cases has broken one record after another. Of the nearly 150,000 cases in the country, at the start of the pandemic a third was confirmed in the last week alone - although the country's death rate is still about the same as Germany's.

Les Misérables

The French love to hate the way their government handled the crown crisis.

At first they complained that the government was caught "with its pants down", had no strategic mask stock or industrial capacity to produce tests. Taking a look at how the Rhine side managed the pandemic made things even worse. Then, when everyone was wearing masks, many French people got sick wearing them and were unhappy with the increasingly forced instructions that made the mask mandatory. The failure of Emmanuel Macron's government to implement effective controls and tracing has further damaged public confidence.

Seven months after the pandemic, French leaders are still trying to justify themselves by saying how new and unpredictable

is this virus when other countries seem to be less confused than them. Authorities also avoided imposing strict rules during the summer holidays - a sacred French ritual - for fear of a social uprising worse than yellow vests, but this led to the inadvertent acceleration of the second wave, as the French relaxed more about following the guidelines.

With daily cases (almost 20,000 a day or more) now much higher than in Germany and more than 3 times even from Italy, which was hardest hit in the spring, the situation is rapidly deteriorating. In a march address to the French people, Macron said he was "at war with the virus." But it looks like she's losing him.

The Spanish Civil War

Spain has the tragic distinction of being the country most affected by the first and second wave of the pandemic. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez followed standard rules in the spring, declaring a "state of alert" and imposing some of Europe's toughest restrictions. But Spain's healthcare system has under staff and materials, leaving the country with one of the highest death rates in the world from the virus (72 per 100,000). When the state of emergency ended on June 21, Sanchez's government had managed to line the curve. The problem is that it didn't stay flat for long. By mid-July, at the peak of the tourist season, cases increased again.

The accusers turned to politics. Spain's conservative opposition withdrew support for Sanchez's lockdown in June, leaving the country's 17 states in the frenzy of the crown, with the authority declaring a local state of emergency. Until that moment, no one dared, fearing the cost. The result was an occasional, powerless, reaction to the crisis.

While Madrid, the epicenter of Spain's epidemic, has recorded more than 560 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 inhabitants in the past two weeks - pushing the national government to take control of crown restrictions, regions such as Valencia and Asturias report less than half that figure. More than six months after the pandemic, Spain has not yet implemented an effective scheme to detect and detect cases of coronavirus, a central failure that has frustrated efforts to slow its spread. So far, polls show voters are not blaming Sanchez -- but that may not last.

The British 'crown-exit'

Most of the European countries affected by the pandemic suffered mainly because they were careless. Great Britain, on the other hand, was left in the vortex of the coronavirus despite the samples it had. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was so upset by his pending affairs that he skipped several urgent meetings on the issue earlier this year. Even in early March, as the pandemic had flattened northern Italy, Johnson seemed unaware of the danger, saying at a news conference that he had visited a hospital that looked after patients with coronavirus and "shook hands with everyone."

A few weeks later, Johnson himself contracted the virus. His struggle with the disease – and coming close to death while he was in intensive care – saved his popularity.

Since then, there has been a slow shift in public confidence, as details of the government's lack of preparation and the coronavirus hit the country hard (England had the worst death rate compared to other European countries between January and June, according to the country's statistics agency). Major failures that gradually occurred include a huge number of deaths in care homes (forced to take back patients with coronavirus early in the outbreak) and not quickly gain significant ability to conduct tests. Public anger grew with the revelation in late May that Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson's closest aide, had apparently breached the rules of lockdown.

His Conservative party has become increasingly uneasy in recent weeks, with opponents of tighter restrictions becoming bolder and forcing the government to declare that any major new measure must be put to a vote. Nonetheless, Johnson's Conservatives retain a slight advantage over Labour in the polls. The question is whether he will survive the second wave.

The heart of Europe

If European Union leaders ever needed a reminder in recent months of how bad the crisis in Europe could be, they only had to look out their own window. It did not take long for Brussels to become one of Europe's hottest zones when it comes to crowns. The rest of Belgium didn't do much better. Theories abound about the reasons: from the country's status as a diplomatic crossroads to the densely populated urban population.

A more plausible cause is political dysfunction. The central government in Belgium is hardly working because of the divided provincial structure and the conflicts in its regions. Unfortunately for the Belgians and the country's many foreign residents, the pandemic struck during one of the country's frequent political inst stops. The task of fighting the pandemic was left to Sophie Wilmes, the inexperienced then interim prime minister.

Communication with citizens was poor. Belgium's non-traditional methodology for calculating crown deaths sowed confusion. Even today, it is difficult to compare Belgium with other countries on the basis of government data. But one thing is very clear: The situation is bad.

The newly formed Belgian government of Prime Minister Alexander De Kroo has promised better coordination to tackle the virus, appointing a new "Commissioner" tasked with the government's management of the crown virus pandemic. Given the country's record so far, it would be difficult for him to... Fail.

Source: Eyenews /iefimerida.gr